GO! STUDIO VISIT WITH NOAH BECKER

Noah Becker is a renaissance man, if you will. He is the founder and editor of the contemporary art magazine Whitehot, a jazz musician, frequent panel participant, independent curator, and yes, artist. Noah has been busy working on his new series of paintings, For Men Who Appreciate History, based on British hair models from the 60s and 70s. While dividing his time between Canada and New York he has returned to New York with impeccable timing not only for the start of the September gallery season but also for GO Brooklyn Art, an open studio event. GO is a Brooklyn-centric event involving over 1,800 artists who have opened their studios the weekend of September 8th-9th. The event is a community based project organized by the Brooklyn Museum and visitors have the opportunity to vote for his or her favorite participating artist. At the time of this article, over 23,000 people have “checked in” to vote for his or her choice on the GO website. The top ten artists will receive studio visits by Brooklyn Museum curators and have the chance to participate in an exhibition at the Museum, December 1st, 2012.

It’s incredible to think of over 1,800 artists living and working in Brooklyn, almost daunting yet inspiring. Visiting Noah’s studio was enjoyable. We spoke about his work and choice of limited color palette, somber, minimal facial affect of his subjects, and his agenda of making a painting that is really banal and not about “anything”. In observation of the reduced color choices, one can’t help but be aware of the soft rosy pinks and strange fleshy tonalities of peach. The subjects are almost expressionless. They stare blankly and at something outside of the picture plane. Each figure appears aloof to his or her own existence, almost existential, yet oddly coy and somewhat seductive in their absence. An almost comical, satirical thread weaves its way through the line-up of perfectly coiffed, larger than life-size heads. They are both painterly and naively subtle. A focus on hair was the original agenda and purpose of the black and white portrait photographs the artist used for reference. While Noah has put a focus on individual strands of hair and styles that are obviously outdated, the shear number of works make for an interesting dialogue. Only a few women are currently included in the series, but their limited presence somehow lends itself to recognition of the reversal of stereotypical beauty or desire. When traveling outside of the United States, specifically in third world countries, it’s not uncommon to see painted male portraits outside of barber shops advertising a look. In the U.S. it seems that a emphasis and societal pressure has been placed on female representation of what beauty is even if men feel the same pressure from the media, Hollywood, etc. The odd portraits of these men, serious in their task, reveal a cross-section of time and a peek into a moment of recent history, focusing on a silent, masculine presence and a caricature of what could be an imaginary protagonist.

“I wanted to do a series of shallow paintings, superficial paintings that could resonate with deeper meaning later on.”

Noah Becker has an exhibit opening at Launch F18 on October 8th, 2012 and is also working on his documentary follow-up to New York is Now, titled The Secret History Of Contemporary Art cast highlights include: Olaf Breuning, Sean Landers, Amy Phelan, Anthony Haden-Guest, Marc Dennis, Ornette Coleman and more.